• Alexander G. Clark Sr. was inducted posthumously into the Iowa African-American Hall of Fame. In 1867, more than 85 years before Brown v. Board of Education, Clark successfully filed suit to gain admittance of his daughter to the racially segregated public schools. He later successfully fought to have his son admitted to the law school at the University of Iowa. In 1879, his son became the first African-American graduate of the school. Five years later, Alexander Sr. was the second African-American graduate of the law school The father/son pair practiced law together in Iowa and Illinois.

In 1890, Alexander was named U.S. minister to Liberia. He died in Africa while serving his country a year later.

• Lovell A. Jones, professor at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and director of the Center for Research on Minority Health at the University of Texas in Houston and professor at the University of Houston, was selected to receive the Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award. He will receive the honor at the annual meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in San Diego in April.

Dr. Jones holds a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California at Berkeley.

• Joycelyn Elders, the former Surgeon General of the United States and currently professor emerita at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, will be honored by the establishment of an endowed chair at the University of Minnesota Medical School. The Jocelyn Elders Chair in Sexual Health Education is being established, in part, with funds from Adam & Eve, a company which sells sex toys, exotic lingerie, and other adult products.

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Professional sports teams have discontinued playing Kate Smith’s version of “God Bless America” at games due to her recording of songs in the 1930s that contained racist lyrics. Which statement best reflects your view?

I agree that Smith’s version of “God Bless America” should not be played.

Smith’s recordings with racist lyrics should be considered in context of the times.

Abraham Lincoln made racist comments, should we ban the reciting of the Gettysburg Address?